She was floating, and it wasn’t the first time. Often times, she felt as if she was floating, but then sleep would overcome her and the dreamless sleep would take her. But for a few moments, every once in a while, she felt as if she was floating. There was no way to explain it. She also often felt as if she could hear a noise, faint and in the background. Cutting through the silence in a mysterious way. It was always in the distance, hovering above the grasp of her consciousness.

Until one day, the noise started to get louder and louder. She was able to grasp it, able to hold it, like a ball of light that glowed deep in the depths of darkness. It was moldable, tangible, as if she was reach out and touch it. Her curiosity about it was deep. After all, her world was darkness, and this noise, this pinging sound, was the only companion that she had, so ever constant that it was. If it was gaining in strength, then she wanted to help it. Without it, she would be alone, and no one wanted to be the only one of his or her kind in the world.

So she reached out and touched it.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

“What do you mean she’s awake?”

The voice on the other end of the line was frantic and there were loud pinging noises in the background as well. The man holding the phone up had to pull it away from his head for a moment, as he swung his feet out from underneath the covers and got up out of bed as he fully woke up.

“Just what I said. I don’t know how it happened, but she woke up. The sensors are going off the charts. The sedative-“

“That sedative cost us thousands of dollars. Tens of thousands. Do you know how rare it is?” The man said, walking out of the bedroom and into his living room.

“Do you know how useless it is?” The other man asked. “We deployed the aerosol version and it’s not knocking her out.”

The man stopped his motions, where he had been searching for his shoes. “Wait a minute. The aerosol is only there in case she breaks out of the containment unit. The containment unit is strength rated to take…Look I don't understand. It’s built out of a ten percent Adamantium alloy.”

“Well, she punched through it without a problem.”

“Hit her with more of the sedative. Use everything. We have to keep this contained; we don’t want anyone finding out about this. Especially not him.”

“What, that for years we’ve had locked up a possible-“

“Exactly.”

There was a crash in the background and then the line went dead. Looking at his phone in his hands, he gave himself a few moments to stare at it before he started moving, faster than he had before. This was not a time to stop or slow down. Things were going to get very crazy, very fast.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

She was floating, through the air. Her eyes blinked multiple times, as she adjusted to this new environment, this strange environment. There was metal on the ground, jagged, and the pieces looked like they fit into the cylinder that was still currently in. A greenish bluish liquid with remarkable transparency was pouring out of the cylinder and onto the floor. When she tried to move out of the cylinder, she was suddenly stopped, jerked backwards slightly. Turning, her vision caught a hold of metal tubes that looked like they had been connected to the back of her neck.

Reaching a hand behind her, she grabbed a hold of them and yanked them.

Sparks showered everywhere, and her vision went gray and then black, as she dropped down to the ground, her brain going haywire from the sudden explosion of stimuli. Her shin caught on a jagged piece, but instead of cutting her, it bent and bent far backwards. The impact of her head hitting the ground brought her back to consciousness and she looked around, half of her head in the transparent liquid.

Suddenly more lights, brighter lights, turned on, and doors opened. People wearing black uniforms with black boots and gear came in, and it was all too much for her to deal with. She struggled to rise, as the lights turned and oriented on her completely naked form. Weapons came up, and there was a round of noise as safeties came off of those weapons, red dots appearing all over her naked form from M68 Close Combat Optics

Most of them were wavering in the air. They weren’t steady, they weren’t sure of themselves. But why?

“Halt.” One of them said. “Get down on your knees and put your hands on your head.”

She shook her head, confusion on her face. She didn’t understand what it was that he was asking her to do, because she didn’t understand the language he was speaking.

“I do not understand what you want me to do.” She said, in a language that none of them could understand.

“Oh Jesus, she’s talking.” One of the soldiers said. “What did she say?”

“I don’t know. Probably-“

One of the others was cut off by the first speaker. “It doesn’t matter.” He said. “Taser her.” He said, and another stepped forward, pulling a taser from his holster and firing it.

The nodes bounced harmlessly off of her shoulder, unable to penetrate her skin. She looked down at the nodes as they fell to the ground, but then they finally dropped, into the translucent liquid, sending electricity shocks up into her through her feet. Her visage changed, grimacing in pain as hundreds of thousands and then millions of volts moved through her body. She contorted, dropping to the ground, which didn’t help things. Gritting her teeth, the she looked up at the man who had fired it and he watched as the taser started smoking, and the battery pack was instantly drained.

“Did…Did anyone else know that she could do that?” Someone asked, as she stood up and looked around the room at them, in anger.

“She was a floating unconscious broad ten minutes ago.” The leader said. “Open fire.” He said, and the soldiers, despite any misgivings that they might have had, opened fire, shooting round after round at the girl.

They watched as the rounds bounced harmlessly off of flawless skin, dropping into the water, and causing hundreds of tiny puddles as they plopped. But the rounds themselves had been crushed, condensed and compacted by impacting against her. The soldiers stopped firing, as the realized their bullets were useless against her.

Then her eyes started glowing red.

She cried out, screaming almost, as she dropped to her knees.

Images were coming to her, overloading her brain. It was too much and she couldn’t concentrate on what was happening in front of her. She could see things, she saw a celestial toward hanging into the sky, a man of darkness coalescing out of oily liquid, a woman dressed in regalia with an eagle on her shoulder as she stood before a congregation of listeners, and a man wrapped in the trappings of a god standing in a park handing out some kind of food to children.

She saw a beast, a devil, a demon. A monster of gray and white charging forward and destroying tall constructions of flesh and concrete married together in an amalgam of unheralded proportions.

She started coughing, and bile poured up out of her, followed by a thick dark red paste.

Blood.

It leaked from her eyes and her nose as she struggled to breath.

“What the fu-“

Falling backwards, she couldn’t hear what was being said. The splash she made barely registered as she curled up in the fetal position, her left side on the ground, shaking, the stimuli too much for her to handle.

The leader stepped forward, slowly, cautiously. He didn’t know what to expect. Anything could happen. He leaned forward and prodded her slowly with the barrel of his gun. When she lay there, with no response, he did it again and then again. There was still no response and he breathed an inner sigh of relief, glad that all of those was over with. Suddenly, she lashed out, grabbing his rifle with her right arm and yanking downwards, so that he moved towards her. Then, she lurched around, bringing her left fist into his chest. The blow threw him backwards with terrific speed and strength and he slammed against the ceiling and one of the corners of the room. His men followed his motion with their eyes, taking their gazes off of the woman.

She exploded upwards, faster than any of them could see, and tore through the ceiling, until she shot up out of the ground. She had been below the ground, in an underground area. Her eyes took in the big ball of light in the distance, the one that had been calling her all this time, or so she thought. A desire to get to the big ball of light overtook her, as she drank in the sunlight, something that she had never naturally experienced. As alarms started going off, she took off, moving up through the sky, and not stopping, until she was in space, traveling at speeds that were un-thought of by mortal men. Speeding towards the sun, she only stopped when she floated in front of it.

She felt alive, finally as she hung there in the vacuum of space. Her skin glowed as she at last connected with the ball of light. But not the noise. The noise was still garbled and in the back of her mind, but fainter than it had been before. She was so wrapped up in the light, that she didn’t see the newcomer behind her until it was far too late.

Spun around in space, she found herself face to face with a blond haired, blue eyes woman. The woman was dressed in a skin tight outfight, but she focused on the symbol that was on the woman's chest.

She recognized the emblem, the symbol, and what it meant. Opening her mouth to speak, the other woman did first, and she heard it, not through her ears, but in her mind, in her very soul.

”No.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The single word was in the language that she understood, and she tremored at the anger that it contained. So much anger and emotion packed into one word. Shaking her head, she tried to back away, slowly drifting closer to the sun, but the other woman reached out and grabbed her, turning and throwing her, hard. She started hurtling back towards earth, but suddenly she was punched, hit in the stomach and she was tumbling down. The hits kept on coming, and she continued to be driven backwards, unable to muster the strength to fight back. This was different than the soldiers, this was totally different. The one who was attacking her, was hitting her with forces that she had never felt before. Thanks to the properties of space, they were moving with tremendous speed, back towards earth.

The word was being repeated, over and over again as they tumbled through space, and then started tumbling through the upper atmosphere of earth. She was screaming it at her as they descended down to the ground, over and over until with one punch, the naked woman was slammed into the ground, in the state of New Jersey. The crater was huge, and the entire ground had shaken due to the impact.

The clothed woman floated in the air over the other, breathing heavily as she stared down at the woman in the crater. She had hit her with a lot and the other hadn’t been able to fight back at all.

“You will not take this life from me.” The woman said.

The other stirred and opened her eyes, as she struggled to rise, looking up into the skies and seeing the one who wanted her demise.

“You have to stop it. Get out of my head. Get out of my head.” The floating woman said, lifting a hand to her head and cradling it.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“I see what you see, I feel what you feel.” The woman said and her eyes glowed red. “I have your memories, your thoughts. They bonded me with you, they made me be you. He made me be you. Don’t you get it?”

“Who are you?” She asked.

“I’m you.” The woman replied. “I’m a Kryptonian, just like you. The whole world thinks I'm you. I've gotten used to this life. I'm comfortable in it. Before this, I was...it doesn't matter. I love my life as you.” Kaley Turner said, the cape of Supergirl fluttering in the wind, her face contorting in anger and shifting to an evil look on her face. “And I’m not giving it up. NO.”

The fists came fast and they came furious. Kaley Turner was raining down blow after blow upon the helpless woman in the crater, actually forcing her deeper and deeper into the ground. Each connected hit sounded like the crack of a bat against a ball, but a thousand times louder. There were even ripples in the air, shockwaves, that emanated upon each landed blow. This was no fight, defined more easily as a massacre, a one sided affair of deadly proportions. The woman raining down the blows had but one goal in mind, the utter and complete subjugation of her opponent. The other was trying to survive, trying to cover up, but there was nothing that she could do against the dedication of her foe.

Anger was building up in her, and that anger finally translated into her grabbing Kaley's wrists and wrenching outwards. In the same moment, in the same millisecond, red beams of heated death shot out of her eyes, impacting against Kaley's face and forcing her head up.

This was the opportunity that was needed, and she seized it, lashing out with the only thing she had left, her legs. The double kick to Kaley's stomach threw her backwards, and she tumbled through the air a good twenty yards away. As Kaley rose from the ground, more shocked from the blow than anything, the other rose, struggling to her feet.

The look of anger had been replaced by a shocked look of her own, as if surprised that her kick had wrought such results. Shock turned to fear, as she lifted her hands up.

"Please, I don't understand." She said. "I don't-"

Her vision shifted. Suddenly, she wasn't looking through her own eyes, but she was looking through Kaley's. She could see herself, naked and confused. It was as if she was Kaley. But the rest of the world was different from how she had seen it before. Something was wrong with Kaley's vision, and the colors of everything was shifting, twisting and turning. First it all became negatives of themselves, then reverted, but with a bright filter attached. The colors started to melt and burn, as if Kaley's eyes were having trouble seeing, their nerve endings burning and firing at a thousand times their normal rate.

Despite all the changes, there was one thing that was clearly and always focused, and that was her own body, her own face, frightened and full of fear. And then like that, with an imaginary snap of fingers from a benevolent god, her vision was restored to her own, and she could see Kaley once more.

"I'm going to kill you." Kaley said.

Kaley made a move forward, but found herself held back. Not by any seen force, but by her own hand. Looking down at her legs, she found them immobile. When she looked back up, she could still see the look of fear on the other woman’s face. Kaley blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she wasn’t in a field in New Jersey anymore, she was in a tank, filled with some kind of liquid. Barely able to make anything out anymore, she thrashed around, trying to get free. But there was metal wrapped around her, plugged into her, somehow, someway, and she couldn’t break free of it.

She couldn’t break free of it. Her. A Kryptonian.

Resuming her thrashing, Kaley hit her head against the back of the tank, and the shock made her close her eyes. When she opened them again, she was back in New Jersey.

“I can see your past.” The woman said, shaking her head. “There’s a man…dressed like you….He wears the crest.” She said.

“Don’t talk about him.” Kaley said.

“Why does he wear the crest? Why does he-“

She didn’t get to finish the words, her eyes widening further as Kaley launched forward, and the two of them went underneath the ground, causing trees above to be lifted up, as the very earth was raised up as they passed underneath. Emerging back upwards, Kaley had her hand on the woman’s throat and she was squeezing, desperately.

“Why do..es….he wear…”

“Because he’s my cousin!” Kaley said, throwing the woman down to the ground. “My cousin, not yours.” She said, and then she buckled, dropping to her knees.

Images were flashing in front of her, images of her and things that she had done. She could see Isaiah and her sharing something resembling a date, right before Detroit happened. Swallowing, it was as if she could taste the fries again. How she wished that she was there again, there, in that little restaurant with Isaiah. Why was she feeling like this, like she couldn’t control her own body? It was her body, she was the one who was in control, but she was having spasms and could feel individual hairs on her arms crackling and tingling.

Gasping for air, Kaley looked up, as the other woman slowly rose to her feet. Now she was the one on her knees and in the position of weakness.

“Someone did things to me.” She said. “You said that you have my memories, my thoughts. How? What is happening to me?” She asked.

“I don’t know.” Kaley said. “I remember things, things I shouldn’t remember. Things that never happened or things that only happened to me.” She said. “There’s a connection, we’re bonded. I can’t not be me…” She said, tears starting to well in her eyes. “Me is all…I know.” She said.
“I don’t want to take you away from you. I only want to know who I am.”

“You’re me.” Kaley said. “Don’t you get it? I have memories of Krypton and now I know they’re not real. That wasn’t me, it was you. I’m you and you’re me.” She said.

The ground quaked beneath her, cracking as she moved forward in a blinding speed. Her aim was perfect, her speed was true. But the woman shifted slightly, and Kaley streaked past her, faster than a speeding bullet. Turning in the air, she looked down at the ground and saw that the woman had her back to her, in what Kaley took as a disrespectful manner.

“No. You are not the one from Krypton.” The woman said, looking over her shoulder. “You are no Kryptonian.”

If there was anything that could push Kaley over the edge, at this point, it was being told that she was not a Kryptonian. After all, it was part of her core being, part of her definition of herself. Her fists clenched, the muscles and sinews tightening as the anger coursed through her. She was a blur, moving faster than a human eye could see. The woman below turned, her fist connecting with the side of Kaley’s jaw. Kaley felt her bones shift, something that was rare for her.

No one could hit her with that much force behind it. The only being who ever had, she had killed. The one in front of her would be no different. Kaley threw a punch of her own, this time connecting with the other woman, hitting her in the stomach. It forced her up in the air a little bit, and Kaley started letting loose with hit after hit into the woman’s stomach. Grabbing the woman by the shoulders, she brought her down as she drove her knee into the woman’s stomach.

Blood spurted out from the woman’s mouth, spraying down onto the ground.

Kaley let her go, a smile on her face as she looked down, satisfied with her handiwork. “Let me know when you’ve had enough.” She said with a broader smile. “So I can put you out of your misery.” Her fist punctuated the sentence, slamming into the back of the other woman’s head and knocking her face first into the ground. Kaley took a few steps backward and watched her opponent, waiting. It was as if she were stalking her, looking for that moment of weakness.

“I know who I am.” The woman said, wincing as one knee came up. Her eyes lifted, finding Kaley’s eyes. “Do you know who you are?” She asked. “I see things. I can see you being created. In a lab.” She said.

Alarms were blaring through out the entire compound after the 'subject's' unexpected and devastating escape. Raymond Marshall was already working on some excuse, so other person's fuck up, to explain to their boss as to how this could have possibly happened.

Reactant Valves, Core modules and even the Nuclear Reactor, that was buried nearly a mile into the ground below them, were all going critical. Which in Raymond's mind, might be the best possible solution to this entire fucking nightmare.

How many times did he explain to their employer, whom no one had ever met, that they were messing with perhaps one of the most powerful races in the known universe. Fucking Kryptonians. Raymond shook his head at the thought. How many times did that idiot Luthor try and mess with that race in the past? Yeah, all those times worked out well for that asshole.

Racing down the Special Projects corridor, with six of the Special Security Officers in tow, Raymond slid to a stop in front of a large metal door, a door made from Vibranium no less, swiped his access card and slowly the door began to open...all 2 feet thick of it. Where his employer got than much Vibranium, one will never know. But the employer obviously had wealth and resources to spare.

Finally the door rolled open, and Raymond gasped in both shock and confusion as the room was completely dark, only the emergency lighting from the corridor crept into the the first few feet of the room casting a gloomy and bleak outlook in all those looking in, wondering what was just beyond the pitch black.

Slowly Raymond began taking slow, unsteady steps backward, as the armored officers...fools that they were, Raymond thought to himself...launched themselves like wild children running into the waves on some distant beach, into the darkness beyond.

At first there was quiet, it felt eternal, foreboding...deathly, then Raymond jumped like a frightened squirrel as his back hit the corridor wall. But it did not last too long. A low, guttural growl came from the darkness. So low that it literally caused the bones in his body to quiver within his skin, and instantly piss himself.

Then the weapons fire began, deafening, and causing Raymond to close his eyes tightly and throw his hands over his ears. But the screams pierced through his hands, cries of horror, a snapping followed by a squishy-ripping sound of limbs being torn apart. It was then that Raymond realized he was screaming too.

Something thudded hard against the wall next to him and Raymond slowly cracked open his eyes to find the cause, and immediately regretted doing so. A torso, minus its legs, had penetrated the metal wall of the corridor and was embedded there. Where the legs were suppose to be, were merely neatly cut off nubs at approximately mid-thigh. The cuts were cleanly sliced, as if with a surgeon's scalpel. Worse...the heart was still beating within the man's chest, as evidenced by the pulses of blood jetting from the Femoral artery, and the heart that did not know it was dead yet.

"Oh...oh....oh my God..." Raymond could only stammer out and then the silence returned.

Raymond didn't want to look, his mind was crying out to his eyes not to look, trying to reason with them that if he didn't look, then this would all go away, and nothing would happen to him. Disneyland...that's it, if he didn't look, then he would take his family to Disneyland and forget all this madness. Just...don't...look!

But his eyes were too stubborn, his curiosity was too great, and slowly, his eyes turned to the door, now with streak of blood and pieces of torn flesh adorning it's shining silvery surface. But stepping slowly out from the darkness, a form emerged from the darkness.

Standing at approximately 6 feet tall, a bright yellow-blonde haired teenaged boy stepped out of the gloom. With an athletic build the teen appeared to only be 15 or 16 years of age, his face was one of pure serenity. The hospital like smock that he wore was streaked with blood, but his face was as serene as still waters on a windless day. His shockingly blue eyes stared at Raymond, with a slight tilt of his head.

"Who's the leader of the club that made for you and me?" Raymond suddenly began singing quietly, as his mind began to shutdown, and madness began.

The growl returned...

"M...I...C...K...E...Y....."

Red eyes suddenly appeared in the darkness behind and several feet above the teen's head.

"M...O...U...S..........EEEEEEEE!"

The arm, if that is what it was, shot out of the darkness, thick as a man's entire body and pulsing with powerful muscles. Claws half the length of a man tipped the thick fingers, gleamed in the corridor's light.

Raymond's body fell in four different layers, like grotesque pancakes, making splatting sounds on the corridor floors.

The power was incredible. Two beings of such incredible ferocity in one place. It was bound to attract the attention of a being of equal power. Especially when the third was one who had a self-appointed responsibility over the wellbeing of those less powerful than the three in question. He arrived on the scene of the fight. Close but not too close. He understood that there was more than what met the eye in this situation. Rushing into making a decision often times bore larger problems down the road. The only sound around him was that of the fighting, and any animals in the area attempting to quickly vacate the premises. But then he heard a single solitary heartbeat, behind him. A normal man wouldn't have been able to hear it. But then again, normal was not a word that could be used to describe him. His hearing was impeccable...superhuman...and turning, his eyes caught those of the man in the shadows.

It made sense. They were where they were, after all.

Without preamble, and only the acknowledgement of the other, the man in the shadows spoke. “What…the hell is going on?” The man in the shadows asked.

“Usually you’re the one with the answers. Isn't that what you keep telling me and everyone else? That’s your job, isn’t it?”

The man in the shadows moved his head, almost imperceptibly in the darkness. Hearing wasn't the only thing superhuman about the newcomer and he saw the smirk grow on the shadowed man's face. “Sarcasm at a time like this? That’s not like you.” The man replied.

“Well, Batman, from what my eyes and the rest of my senses are telling me, something is very wrong with my cousin.” He said, almost immediately growing tired of the verbal sparring, as was usually the case between the two men. “I don’t know who the newcomer is, but I think she's Kryptonian.” Superman added turning back as Batman emerged from the shadows, the Bat of Gotham walking towards the Son of Krypton.

“If Kaley is your cousin.” Batman replied, handing him a small screen.

Superman looked down at the information streaming across the screen and almost immediately looked back. “How did you…I’m not sure I want to know, to be honest. This is real?” He asked, and Batman nodded. "Of course it's real. You don't deal in bad information." He said, which brought him to another realization, knowing the man to his side. Superman’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t want me to interfere.” He said and Batman nodded again. “How can this be happening to Kaley?” He asked looking at Batman but pointing out at the two combatants who were resting, it seemed, in between rounds.

“Chalk it up on the list of things we don’t have answers to.” Batman replied. “But the fact is that Kaley’s biological signs are spiking all over the place. This is as accurate as a read as I can get, because the machines analyzing this are going haywire trying to analyze it in the first place.” He said. "The incoming data is in the petabytes, considering the destructive force these two have. Luckily the servers run at petaflop speed, but it means no margin for error otherwise there's a big data dump."

They watched the fight continue for a moment before Superman turned to Batman. “You can’t expect me to not interfere with this.” He said, his eyes beseeching Batman to relent. “Your machines could be wrong. You said it yourself, they’re going haywire.”

“They’re going haywire with the amount of raw information coming in, not with their output.” Batman replied, crouching as he surveyed the scene. “From the audio that I’ve picked up, there appears to be a discrepancy between Kaley and the newcomer regarding memories.” He said.

“Memories?” Ree replied, taking a step towards the two women fighting, but Batman held up a hand.

“Memories.” Batman repeated, as Kaley gave the newcomer a vicious uppercut that lifted her up into the air. “They appear to be arguing over who the memories belong to.”

Before Superman could reply, there was a blur and Kaley appeared in front of them. She had heard them talking about her and talking about the memories. “Ree, you have to stop her.” She said. “You have to do something. I can’t get her out of my head. She thinks she’s me, but she’s not.” Kaley said. Her uniform was torn in various places from the fighting and she was breathing heavily.

Both men looked past her at the naked woman who was on all fours. The other woman didn’t look like she was doing that well at all, and she had definitely received an incredible beat down.

“Ree, do something.” Kaley implored.

Superman looked at Kaley and then at Batman. There was something wrong with Kaley, that much was obvious. Her eyes were wild, like a feral animal. Her pupils were dilated, and there appeared to be red rings around her eyes, inside the white of her eyes. She turned towards Batman. “Batman, do something.” She said. “He won’t listen to me.” She said, pointing at Superman. Her head cocked to the side, funnily as she turned back to Superman. “Why won’t you do something? I’m your cousin!” Kaley yelled, before she used her incredible speed to appear next to the woman on all fours.

She drove her knee up into the woman’s stomach, lifting her. Then she pounded downwards onto the woman’s back, the force creating a small crater in the ground.

“One thing is for sure.” Batman said. “Whoever Kaley is fighting, appears to have the same durability as you two, going back to your statement of her being a Kryptonian. She matches a lot of the biometrics. Normal people don’t make holes in the ground like that.”

“Normal people?” Superman asked, his eyes still focused on the fight in front of him. The only change in demeanor was the raising of an eyebrow.

“Homo sapiens, you know what I meant, don’t get snippy with me.” Batman replied.

“What do you make of what Kaley said?” Superman asked, his fists tight as he continued to hold himself back, despite it going against his better judgment. Despite the others' misgivings, Ree generally implicitly trusted Batman’s judgment. Maybe it was that he had gotten to know the man. Maybe it was the simple fact that Clark had taught him to trust whoever wore that Cowl. Clark had always been adamant that one day someone would succeed Bruce in that hallowed and sacred crusade of the one man army in Gotham. But no man would ever have been able to don that cowl unless they were someone that Bruce Wayne would have wanted to. The Bat in Gotham had been the Man of Tomorrow's closest ally. That term World's Finest meant much to many, but it could not have meant more to the two men who had made a part of it.

Thus, it was rare for Ree to not agree with Batman's judgment, because he knew that Batman’s mind worked in a far different way than his own. Ree saw the problem now, and could find the best way to solve it. Batman saw the problem down the road that this one caused if not solved in a particular way and tried to solve the future problem by cutting the knot with a certain stroke. Batman’s was proactive, Ree’s was often times reactive. Which had been Kaley’s problem with him all along, going back to the situation with Doomsday.

Whether the man from Gotham wanted to acknowledge it or not, he was, essentially, a member of Ree’s family, in his eyes. He had to trust one family member to do what was right for one of his other family members.

“Admittedly, it’s a bit puzzling. Unless the girl is telepathic, I’m not sure how she would be in Kaley’s head.”

They watched as Kaley went to strike again, but the girl blocked it, pushing against Kaley and using the resistance as a push off to get back to her feet. She slammed her fist against Kaley’s jaw, with ferocity behind the punch. The blow knocked Kaley backwards and the girl turned towards Batman and Superman.

“She won’t stop attacking me.” She said, referring to Kaley. “I don’t know why. She keeps saying that she likes being me and that she won’t let me be me. I don’t know what she means.”

Batman turned to Superman. “That’s Kryptonian. She’s speaking in Kryptonian. What did she…nevermind.” He said, reaching into his utility belt and pressing a button on the inside of a compartment, turning on the speech function. “Say that again.” He said, to the girl, his voice converted into a rougher form of Kryptonian, programmed from Bruce’s archives.

“She won’t stop attacking me.” She repeated. “I don’t know why. She keeps saying that she likes being me and that she won’t let me be me. I don’t know what she means. I can see her memories. I can hear her thoughts. I know what she knows but I don’t know how I know it. Or why I know it.”

“I hate you people.” Batman said. “Why can’t you be normal?”

“Because then I wouldn’t be able to lift cars and save kittens out of trees. You like kittens.” Superman replied.

“Firefighters can save the kittens, and Captain America can lift the cars. He’s way cooler than you.” Batman replied, to Superman.

“That hurts.” Superman said, his eyes still on the girl. The moment between the two titans over, he stepped forward. “Do you know who I am?” He asked.

“You’re the one who wears the crest.” The girl replied, her eyes fixated on the crest that was emblazoned on Superman's chest. With tentative hands, she reached out, as if to touch it. There was reverence in her eyes, but also a marked look of confusion. It didn't appear as though she had seen the symbol in quite some time.

“She’s observant.”

Superman looked over his should to give Batman a glare before turning back. “Yes. You know what this crest means?” He asked, pointing at the symbol on his chest.

“Liar!” Kaley said, shooting through the air and slamming against the woman’s back. The motion caught the other off guard and she was tossed against a tree, bouncing off of it and falling down to the ground. “Get out of my head. You’re stealing my memories. They’re my memories. You weren’t there. You were never there.”

When Batman reached out to stop him, again, Superman waved the other man off. “I’ve seen enough.” He said with finality in his voice. His speed allowed him to intercept the naked woman’s intended attack with only Kryptonian possible accuracy. Ree caught her arm by the wrist, stopping the intended blow. Her eyes widened and she stared at him, not sure why he would stop her from defending herself. “This stops.” Superman said, his voice even and firm. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we’ll get to the bottom of this.” He turned and looked over at Batman. “We’ll help you, I promise.”

“That’s…That’s probably a bad thing to say.” Batman replied, rising from where he was and starting to walk over. The last thing he wanted was to be forced to act in this situation, especially when he wasn’t sure of all of the variables. Not being able to out gambit the variables was what got people killed. “But since you’re just going to go ahead and volunteer my help.” He said, reaching down into his utility belt and pulling out a small blue attachment for his grappling gun. He aimed it at the huddled over Kaley and fired.

The blue projectile shot out, wrapping around Kaley’s upper arm. Tiny almost microscopic barbs attempted to inject themselves into her skin to gain a proper hold, as the blue projectile spread around her upper arm, row after row. Of course, this was a tool designed to deal with the flesh of homo sapiens. Not someone of Kaley’s durability. While the barbs were unable to gain purchase, they were able to ensure the actual point of the tool. Kaley’s eyes shot open as the rows of material activated, shocking her. Thousands upon thousands of volts ran through her body. She screamed in pain and dropped to the ground, collapsing. Her body continued to twitch as smoke began to rise from the voltage being sufficient in strength to at least burn some of the hairs on her arm.

“Isa-Batman.” Superman said, his eyes flashing.

“She’ll be fine. It’s the other one I’m more concerned about at the moment.” Batman said, ignoring the protestations and putting the grappling gun back in its place. With his free hand, he held up the screen so that Superman could see it and understand the thought process. “Kaley’s vitals. She’ll be fine.” He said, looking at the other woman. “Memories. Talk. Now.” He said, still using the Kryptonian speech translator.

“I don’t know what they are. But I remember things, things I didn’t do, things I couldn’t have done. She fought a creature similar to the Doomsday of old, didn’t she?” She asked, looking at the prostrate form of Kaley. Her eyes held confusion but at the same time empathy. “I can remember it. I see it, from her perspective. It’s as if I was there but I know I wasn’t. It feels like me but it doesn’t at the same time. I can’t rightly explain it.” She added as Superman finally let go of her wrist, relatively convinced she wasn’t going to attack Kaley any more.

Batman paused, looking between Kaley and the woman. His mind was racing, thinking through what he was hearing. There had to be a solution, there had to be an answer to the problem. That was what he knew and how he operated. Every problem had a solution and he’d never run into one that didn’t. It was only a matter of finding that solution and doing it with enough speed that the problem didn’t spiral out of control and become unmanageable. Then it hit him. Sometimes the most obvious of answers was the right one, even if it was the most obvious.

“Their minds are linked, somehow.” He said. “Kaley has been being fed the memories and thought processes of this woman.”

“What are you saying?” Superman asked with a frown. “That she’s not Kaley?” He looked over at the woman who he had known for some time now as his cousin.

“She is Kaley. But Kaley herself is not who she thinks she is. She’s been conditioned to think she is who she is.” Batman replied. “There’s a link between them, feeding Kaley memories of Krypton and memories that she never experienced. But through that link there’s been feedback. It hasn’t been an only one-sided communication. If memories and thought patterns can go one way, they can also go the other.” He stopped for a moment, considering.

“That has to have caused problems on Kaley’s end of things, from a mental place. Her psyche has to have been damaged from it.” The tall man in blue stated.

The Bat of Gotham nodded. “This would explain Kaley’s behavior swinging from one side to the other almost the entire time we’ve known her. A brain, even one such as yours or another alien’s, it can’t be healthy for it to have to deal with such a rush of stimuli.”

“Then shut it down. There has to be some way to shut it down.” Superman stated.

“If I had a way to do that, I would have offered it up already, don’t you think?” Batman said.

Superman reached up and detached his cape, pulling it around and wrapping it around the formerly naked woman. The Man of Steel turned to the man he considered a friend. “You’re saying that it’s a mental issue. Hitting things won’t solve it.”

“Probably.” The Kryptonian retorted. It took a while for Batman’s penchant to let his attempts at humor be drier than a desert to get to Superman, but it was starting to reach that point. The situation was dire, and Kaley’s health hung in the balance. Maybe she was his cousin, maybe she wasn’t. But Ree cared about her, the same way he cared about anyone else. Moreso because despite the arguments, which may now have had an explanation, he did think of Kaley as his family, the same way he thought of the man underneath the black reinforced and lead lined mask to be his family.

“We need to be able to enter their minds and….” He trailed off as both Batman and Superman looked at each other.

“Torquasm Vo.” Both said at the same time as they turned back to the woman.

“Do you know what Torquasm Vo is?” Superman asked.

The young woman nodded. “I should have thought of that, but Kaley as you call her attacked me before I could truly get my bearings. I don’t fully remember the technique though.” She said. Before she could say anything else, her eyes widened and Kaley, who had risen and shaken off the electric shocks, propelled herself into both Ree and the woman, knocking both of them down.

Batman who had been far enough away that he wasn’t hit, reflexively jumped backwards, landing in a crouch.

“You’re going to help her?” Kaley asked, seeing red. It wasn’t that difficult, consider her eyes were charging red, ready to fire her heat vision. She stared daggers at Ree and the woman. “You would betray your own flesh, your own blood?!”

Superman looked over his shoulder. “Kaley, it’s not like that. I’m trying to help. You’re sick.” He looked at Batman. “If I’m going to help her with the Torquasm Vo…I need you to stop Kaley.”

Kaley looked at him, her eyes glowing red. “I could kill you in an instant.” She said. “I could rip your throat out. Burn you to ash. You’re not a threat. You never have been. Be a good little Bat and back off.” She said.

Batman, still crouched, rose to his full height, more than a few inches taller than Kaley, and as he did, he let the folds of his cape furl around him. Withdrawing his hands inside of the cape, he stood there as a stoic sentinel, waiting. “Well?” He asked. “Are you going to waste my time talking, or are you going to actually try something.”

She laughed, as over his shoulder Ree and the other spoke to each other, preparing the new Kryptonian for Torquasm Vo. “Your parlor tricks work, they really do.” Kaley said, her head rolling to the side. “But,” she said, lifting a finger up to her mouth, “Do you think I’m one of the cowardly or superstitious lots, I wonder?” She asked, with a wicked grin on her face.

Batman’s face remained impassive, more than half covered by the cowl. His eyes were unreadable, almost disinterested in what was going on around him. “From where I’m standing, you still haven’t made a move. Don’t tell me all that rage is going to go to waste.”

She sprang forward and dove at him, her speed enhanced to insane levels. But she dove through him, hitting the ground. With a snarl, Kaley turned and saw that he had been using a projector the entire time. Batman connected with the side of her jaw, and she hit the ground. Looking back up, she saw that while the cape had provided cover, he had donned a weapon. In her arrogance, she had not thought he would do something like that, and had not looked through the cape with her x-ray vision. Now he wore brass knuckles that were clearly crafted out of a specific glowing green material.

“Why do you have Kryptonite?” She asked, her eyes widening.

“I have everything.” Batman replied. “I’m the Batman. Ree may only be weakened by the Prismatic kryptonite, but you were always susceptible to it. Even if you’re mimicking a Kryptonian, you adopt their weaknesses along with their overpowered strengths.” He said as she rose to all fours. His fist came down into the back of her head, dropping her. He crouched by her, holding one of his fists by her head. Sweat began to bead all around, and her face started to shift to a sicklier visage. “Now, I need you to calm down so I can fix this. If you give me the time to do that, we’ll figure out how to help you.” He said.

“I know how to help me, I don’t need your help to do that.” She said. She threw herself forward and tackled him to the ground. Concentrating on one hand, Kaley started to wrestle with Batman, trying to wrench the kryptonite knuckles off of his hands. Even though it hurt her hands to do so, she kept prying at the knuckles.

Rolling backwards, Batman took her with him, reversing their positions so he was on top. Lifting a free hand up, he brought it down square into her stomach. “I really don’t want to hurt you.” He said. “You’re making this more difficult than it has to be.”

“Then let me kill her.” She said. “If I kill her, the voices will go away. I just want the voices to go away.”

“Ree, tell me you’re having more success than I am.” Batman said.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

“…Your parlor tricks work, they really do.”

Ree clamped down on the Kryptonian woman’s ears and looked into her eyes. “You need to shut out everything else. Focus on my voice.”

“But what if he fails?” She asked, her deep blue eyes shifting over to where Batman and Kaley were squaring off.

“He won’t. He looks like a man in a costume.” Ree said, looking over his shoulder. He used his x-ray vision to see what Batman was doing. “Then, with something from that belt of his, he reminds everyone that he has an extraordinarily inventive mind.” He said and looked back. “We’re very lucky to be able to call on him. Focus on my voice.” Superman said.

“I will.”

“You need to harness your thoughts, focus them. They can be a powerful ally.” Superman said. “I don’t know what is going on with you and Kaley, but you have to be stronger than whatever it is that is keeping you under submission.” He said. His body began to hum as he entered the state that was Torquasm Vo. The tips of his fingers lit up, a dull yellow glow appearing as he moved his thumbs to the Kryptonian woman’s temples. Pressing into her temples, Superman closed his eyes. “I’m going to aid you as best I can, but I can’t do this without you.”

She closed her eyes and began to concentrate herself. It was a weird sensation, a weird feeling, going inside of oneself. After all, this was made even stranger by the notion that you should be able to go inside of yourself, because after all, it was you. But still, it gave difficulty, still it felt foreign. Like wisps of fog in the air, she could see it, she could feel it almost. Taste it on the tip of her tongue it was so strong. Like the fruit her mother used to give her on Krypton when she was a child, that’s what it tasted like. Sweet but sour. A perfect amalgamation of opposites. “I feel it.” She said.

“I can as well.” Superman said. “I need you to pull on that thread, tug on that string. We need to know how deep it goes.” He said.

Her body was starting to hum as well as the tips of her fingers starting to glow. Superman smiled, his eyes on her face. She was utilizing Torquasm Vo. Now, he had to help her find whatever the malady was and stop it.

In her mind, she could see the wisps but there was one, a blood red one that caught her attention. She was being directed to it, it seemed. Despite looking non-corporeal, it still pulsed every so often with an inner glow. The blood red light was a beacon and she reached out, taking hold of it. She started to pull, but as she did, she felt a stinging sensation in another part of her head. Something was hurting her from the inside. “My head.” She said. “It hurts.” She managed to say as the pain rolled through her, a wave crashing against rocks. It wasn’t enough to buckle her, to break the figurative rocks, but it was enough to show her that the pain was there and that it would not be ignored. Still, she pressed on. There had to be something here, some kind of proof of the damage that had been done to her and the manipulation that had taken place.

She would not rest until this was solved and the demons exorcised from her mind.

“I see a man, I hear a voice.” She said, her eyes clenching tightly shut now. “I don’t know what he’s saying. It’s in the language your friend speaks.”

“English?” Superman asked, before realizing she wouldn’t know what English even was. “Can you find the first memory of this man?” He asked.

“I can try. It hurts.” She said, as blood welled up in her nose, threatening to spill over. “I don’t know if I can.”

“You have to try.” Superman replied, wishing that he could lend her his reserves. “You’re a Kryptonian. So am I. You have my strengths; it’s just a matter of unlocking that willpower within you. I would do it for you if I could. But I can’t.”

Her eyes flared open, and they glowed, but not with the red glow of the heat vision power, no, this was with the true blue of a flame. Her jaw dropped, and the glow seemingly emanated from her mouth as well. “I have it.” She said, and in her mind it was as if she had finally grabbed hold of the thread and was able to pull it with all her strength, all her might.

It latched on to her arms, sinewy and sticky, taking hold, taking purchase. It refused to concede, it refused to give in. Wrapping around it, she seized an even strong hold and pulled and pulled. The blood spilled over, coming out of her nose, as she did battle for the ownership of her mind the ownership of her very soul it seemed. With a scream, she felt a pop, a deafening clap only audible to her inner hearing, and then silence. She looked up, the glow gone from her eyes, and she could see the crest on the chest of the man standing in front of her. She could see the cape billowing around her, but she could not hear it or the wind. Finally, she could see Superman’s mouth moving, and she could read his lips, but her hearing was gone.

With a delayed reaction, she reached up to her ears as a rushing sound filled the void. Everything came crashing back in.

“Are you alright?” Superman asked.

“I am.” She said, rising back to her feet, and wiping the blood from her nose. She turned towards where Batman and Kaley were. “But she’s not going to be.” She said as Batman turned to them to ask Ree a question.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Batman looked back towards Kaley as her fist came in to connect with the side of his jaw. He didn’t have time to brace for the impact, and he was forced to take the full strength punch. In the back of his mind, he knew it was going to hurt. He'd been hit before, by people with incredible strength and he'd gotten up. He also had been hit before by Ree. But never, never had he been hit by a Kryptonian at full force. This was going to hurt and possibly in a permanent way that he never actually woke up from. So he prepared as best he could in the split second it took his brain to register that the punch was coming.

It forced him back, but he realized he was still on his feet. The pain wasn’t much at all, which was more than surprising. It was comparable to a punch from a woman of…normal strength.

“What?” Kaley stammered out, her eyes widening as she looked down at her own hands, as if they themselves had risen up against her and betrayed her. She staggered back a step, confused and in disbelief. She dragged her eyes upwards. "I don't....I don't understand." She said as the other Kryptonian woman stepped up next to Batman.

“Your connection to me gave you my strength and my powers. Without the connection…” The Kryptonian woman said and trailed off, letting Kaley think it all through for herself. “You have no powers.” She finished with an air of finality.

For his part however, Batman didn't want to run the risk that this development would revert to the status quo. He wanted action that would solve the problem. Batman snapped his fist outwards, impacting against Kaley’s face. The blow was just enough to knock her unconscious and she crumbled to the ground. He turned and grinned at Superman who was glaring at him in response. “What?” He asked. “I tried it your way. Just keep hitting things until the problem is solved.”

The Kryptonian woman looked at the two men. “You two have a strange relationship.” She said.

“We should get Kaley out of here and to somewhere safe. She needs to be treated with care.” Superman said, looking at Batman. He bent and scooped up the unconscious woman, turning back towards the Bat of Gotham. “Your place or my place?” He asked.

“Your place. If she comes to and her powers are back that's not going to be good if she's still not in her right mind. I don’t want any of my things destroyed.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Superman and the Kryptonian woman stood in one of the rooms of the Fortress of Solitude. It was a bedroom of sorts, and she stood, waiting for him.

He pressed a button and a wall panel slid away to reveal the contents within. Something floated out, contained within a force field emanating from the top and the bottom, from two cylinders that had been chopped at angles. Blue shimmer light surrounded the item in the force field. She stared at it as it approached the two Kryptonians. Ree looked first at the item and then at her, studying her reactions. Reaching out, she moved her fingers over the fabric of the uniform and over the crest on the chest. “I remember this from when I was growing up. I’m getting bits and pieces back.” She said. “My family wore this crest.” She added, looking at the uniform that hung suspended in the air.

“You said you were my cousin.” Ree said. “But I’m not related to the House of El.”

“No, you’re from the House of Van.” She replied, nodding. “But my parents raised me to believe that a House was simply a house and a name was simply a name. We are all family and we all have to look out for the other. Especially now…now that Krypton is gone. You are like family.”

“This belongs to you.” He stated, taking the uniform out of the stasis field and placing it into her hands. “Besides, I don’t like the idea of you running around with clothes on. What else do you remember? Is there anything else coming back to you?”

She shook her head and looked away at one of the images of Krypton that Ree had put up on a wall. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember, as she hugged the uniform to her chest. “Images. Memories. Fragments of memories, really.”

“They’ll come back.” Superman said, reassuringly. “Now that the connection is gone, I'm sure it will all come back to you. Do you remember what your name was?” He asked, hopeful.

She smiled. “The other one, his crest I have not fully seen before. What is it? What house does that symbol belong to?” She asked.

Superman laughed. “It’s not the symbol of a house. It’s a bat, which is an animal that inhabits this planet. The bat evokes fear in the hearts of those who see it. The ‘other one’, his name is Batman.” Superman said. “In a way I guess you could say that it is a symbol of a house. The House of the Bat.” He said. “I’ll let you change.” He said to Jayla before walking past her and heading out of the room.

After she had changed into the uniform, Jayla folded up Ree’s cape and held it in her hands as she went to the door. It slid away before she could open it though and she looked down at the canine form of Krypto. The Asgardian Direwolf/Kryptonian warhound mixed breed stared up at her, eyeing her with a sense of uncertainty. There was a look in his eyes that told her that obtaining his acceptance was rather important.

At the sound of her speaking in Kryptonian, the dog started whining and by the time she finished, Krypto suddenly jumped her, licking her face and pawing at her.

Acceptance was hers.

He followed her as she walked through the Fortress. She paused as she saw Batman in the distance through the window of a door. Walking towards him, she pushed through the door to see him standing in some kind of medical room. Kaley was lying down, still unconscious, on a bed, with machines connected to her to monitor her. There were straps around her wrists and her ankles. They were probably Batman's idea. He was the one who seemed more cautious than Ree. There were Kryptonian medical robots that buzzed around the room, monitoring Kaley's status and overseeing everything.

At the sound of the door opening, Batman turned his head slightly, to acknowledge the newcomer to the room. Krypto trundled away, still clearly annoyed by the Dark Man’s presence in his home. But there wasn't much he could do about it, if Ree wanted him there.

There was silence between Jayla and Batman. She wasn't sure what to say, how to start the conversation. He was the only human she'd interacted with. The people she remembered from the medical facility and prison she'd been in, they had never spoken to her and she could barely remember their faces. A part of her was still convinced none of this was real and she was still stuck there, and this was nothing but a dream. If it wasn't a dream, Jayla was incredibly grateful to be free of the nightmare she had been in during her waking moments. Now she did know what to say.

“Thank you.” She said.

The taller man held up a finger and pressed a button on his belt, turning the translator back on. She was, after all, speaking Kryptonian. She waited a beat.

“Thank you.” Jayla repeated.

“For what?” He asked.

“You were the one who struck the final blow to incapacitate Kaley and stop her from continuing to try to harm me.” She said. When he shrugged, she pressed on. “I…I have her memories. I have to sort through them all.” Jayla said. “I know you two were close.” She said as he turned back and looked at the sleeping Kaley. “It had to be difficult to strike someone you care about. It made sense to thank you for what you did, that's all.”

He nodded and she turned to start walking out of the room.

"Don't waste it." He said, and she looked back. "I know a lot about this world. I've made it my life's goal to study it to better understand it so I can stop people from being hurt." Batman said. "One of the things I've learned is that the symbol on your chest, it means something to a great number of people." He said, as he looked over her shoulder and saw that Ree had stepped into the room. "For some people it means they've been saved. For others it means that a helping had has arrived. Your cousin did a lot to help people before he died. No matter what happened, he made sure that the symbol meant hope. Kaley....for all of her flaws....for all of her unstable issues, she understood that. Now it's your turn." He said and walked past her and Ree, to walk out of the room.

The two followed him, and he slowed so they were all in lockstep, Jayla in the middle. “What are you going to do now?” He asked.

“I’m not sure.” She said. "I know there's a great deal of responsibility on me. A part of me wants to learn more about this world that you both inhabit. I would like to learn more about the House of the Bat.” Jayla added, and Batman raised an eyebrow. “I would also like to learn why I can’t see your face. My vision can’t penetrate your mask, almost as if you are prepared for dealing with someone such as me.”

“I’m prepared for anything.” Batman replied. “That’s how I stay alive. I don’t trust many people.”

“Trust.” Jayla said, nodded. “I don’t know how I feel about that word. You spoke about hope, but there was no hope for me when I was stuck in that prison, Batman. It was one of the people of this world who forced me into submission, tortured me, used me. One of your kind. You want me to help the very people who enslaved me. I don’t know if I can trust the people of this world.”

“In time, you will learn that there are more good people on this rock of ours than bad.” Superman replied. “A lesson as vital as any that we can learn.”

“Batman is a good person. Batman saved me but he doesn’t trust me. He wears the mask.”

“To be fair, I don’t trust many people, like I said.”

“I think I need to be on my own for a while. To relearn who I am and rediscover myself.” Jayla said. “When I am ready, I will return to this planet.”

Superman’s brow furrowed. It was clear he wasn’t in favor of this plan. Batman gave him a look. The two men shared a lot of information in that look, even though a word was not spoken. Superman knew what Batman would have said to him, and he understood it entirely. Even if he still didn’t agree with it, he had a feeling his friend was right. There was a great deal shared. But then again, that was why they were much like brothers. He nodded. “We will be here for you, if you need help.”

“He will.” Batman corrected. “I’ll be busy.”

“You know….I do have all the memories that Kaley had.” Jayla said, eyeing Batman. Somehow she managed a smile that did something to Batman's stomach, resembling a flipping motion. “And her actions, they were not fully her own. She behaved in ways in which I had a lot of influence.” She added, trailing off.

“I don’t think I like where this conversation is going.” Superman said, looking between the two of them.

“Not as much as…Isaiah won't.” Jayla replied with an odd twinkle in her eye.

Batman turned to Superman. "You know where to find me." He said, and started walking away.